Harness Racing is “Real Good” for Holland
March 27, 2008
Driver Brent Holland has called the Windy City racing circuit home since 1991. The 36-year-old Wilmington, Ohio native scored his best season ever in 2007, amassing $2,764,882 in earnings from 2,246 starters who recorded 378 wins, 322 seconds and 253 thirds.
And Holland isn’t slowing down either. To date in 2008, he’s had 464 starts, with a 66-66-54 record and $338,476 in purse earnings. He currently sits second ($160,381) in the Maywood Park driver standings and sixth at Balmoral ($178,095). Lifetime, he’s racked up 3,344 victories and $25,384,560 from the winner’s he driven.
Holland grew up in central Ohio, next to neighbors who owned and trained Standardbreds.
“The Hagemeyers were our next door neighbors and friends,” Holland recalled. “I used to go over there on Saturdays as a kid and help them with their horses.”
Holland is the only member of his family with interests in the equines. His father is a farmer, his mother a housewife, and his older brother Trent, 37, helps with the family’s 50-acre farm.
Holland went to work for Buckeye horseman Bill Daley during his high school years, and received his matinee license in 1987. He graduated to Provisional driver status in 1989 and in 1990 was granted an “A” license during the Scioto Downs spring meeting.
“I’m allergic to horses and leather,” Holland said. “So it’s important for me to stay covered up and not touch a horse’s skin too much. I don’t give horses baths if I can help it now. I mainly stick to jogging, training and driving.”
Holland won his first big stakes, piloting the pacer Dancer’s Ideal for trainer Bobby Grimsely in 1990, to victories in the Orange & Blue and the Cardinal that year. After some thought, the young driver decided to give his talents a try at the Chicago venues. He was just 20.
“I wanted to get out of Ohio,” Holland said. “Driving in Chicago appealed to me more than racing at Lebanon. The problem was, I didn’t know that many people in Chicago. A friend told me that Bob Farrington was looking for help at his farm that was southwest of Maywood. So I called Bob and he said I could come up and go to work for him.”
That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship with many Windy City trainers, drivers and owners. He’s been a mainstay in Chicago every since.
“I hope to continue to be successful here as a catch driver,” Holland noted. “The right trainer can really help a driver–that’s what really got me started here–when Bob put me down on his stock, because he had them classified properly.
“I enjoy driving horses in Chicago, because they have a better class of horses than a lot of places, and we’ve got a lot more of them,” Holland offered. “The majority of horsemen, the drivers in particular, keep their business on the racetrack. You can be friends after you get off the bike and leave the track and that’s important. Often times back at Lebanon you had to be ready for a fight once you stepped out of the sulky. The drivers here are very professional–they leave their races on the track.”
Holland said he was inspired to drive by Herb Coven, Jr. and by Hall of Famer and Meadowlands superstar John Campbell.
“When I was little I used to watch Herb all the time from the sidelines,” Holland said. “I learned a lot from him by just watching him and how he handled a horse. Then I started watching John Campbell on the television from The Meadowlands. What struck me about John is that he seldom used the whip.
“That tells you a lot about a driver,” Holland added. “Most of these horses give you all they got, and that’s all you can ask for.”
